by Site Staff
March 27, 2006
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s (MSLO) learning and development efforts followed the crucial steps of building a home. Before jumping into the actual building process in 2000, Ron Thomas, vice president of organizational development for MSLO, formulated a list of competencies to lay the groundwork for what would become the guidelines for all its training initiatives thereafter.
“Competencies serve as our standard,” Thomas said. “We look for creative people that exhibit entrepreneurship, are accountable, work well in teams, are excellent time managers, can manage change and are decisive.”
Thomas said that when he started at MSLO in 2000, there was a tremendous need for technology and management training because the company was expanding its publications, merchandise and multimedia channels. “We are basically a young company—founded in 1982—and we have people that started with us who have worked their way up through the company,” he explained. “And in 2000, we found that as we continued to grow, our pipelines in many cases were not strong enough with key talent.”
In order to develop people from the get-go, the company introduced a full-fledged orientation program to emphasize the importance of learning and development. The orientation program’s purpose was to acquaint new hires with MSLO’s philosophy, “People are our greatest asset.” According to Thomas, “this mantra makes the development of our people a priority and turns managers into leaders.”
A year after the company’s orientation program was up and running, Thomas and the training and development team developed Martha Stewart University. The university served as the sturdy foundation in which all new training and development initiatives were built upon. The foundation supports MSLO’s entire learning curriculum that is delivered by online and instructor-led training, team-building exercises and other delivery methods. “The first step of the university was to instill some management skills throughout the organization so that managers could use these skills to either build a new department or take on a new project,” Thomas said.
Because MSLO’s new curriculum was based on new managers, Thomas and his team identified management core competencies in order to build the learning program strategically. “The curriculum emphasizes coaching, counseling, delegating, managing conflict, managing performance problems and more, which all reflect the competencies we identified,” Thomas said.
According to Thomas, the company’s hiring practices reflect the management core competencies as well. “We are currently growing weekly. We are in a spurt mode,” he said. “We take every opportunity—especially during the interviewing and hiring process—to refer back to those competencies. A person that can manage change, a person who is accountable, good with teamwork and partnering, that is business-savvy, can communicate, good at managing time, decision-making, etc., these are the key things that we look for and use throughout our processes.”
Although building the program was an undertaking in itself, Thomas said that follow-up was an integral part of the process. Follow-ups ensure that Martha Stewart University’s various delivery methods are successful and that the curriculum continues to grow with the company and its employees. Thomas often acts as a fly on a wall during managerial meetings and training events to address organizational structure needs to ensure that development is strong and progressing upwards—not crumbling to the ground.
“We continue to take things a step further. For example, if we do a class on team-building for a specific team, we come back and imbed ourselves in the process by doing follow-ups throughout the process, performing debriefings to find out how things are working and to see if there are any areas we need to work on or concentrate on. In other words, we’re always thinking about what level two is going to entail,” Thomas said. “We are striving to get that peripheral seat at the table by using this proactive strategy. The old training model is sitting in a room and waiting for someone to say, ‘I need this class.’ We try to look at it from a high, collaborative perspective because in the end, it is much more in tune to where we need to go.”
Currently, Thomas and his team are building the Leadership Institute. “The training and development programs and initiatives that we are developing now are focused on strengthening our leaders to enhance the level of growth,” Thomas explained. “We want to make sure that the foundation is firm, make sure that we have adequate leaders so that once the business becomes solidified we can reach back and say, ‘What we need you to do now is manage this business because you have been doing so well, and you are ready for the next stage in growth.’ That is how our mission ties into bottom-line results: It is to develop the pipeline in such a way.”
–Cari McLean, carim@clomedia.com